Words of Encouragement
by Lover of Deidara
Summary: -"Well, actually, I like him a lot." ...I'm almost positive those words had a deeper meaning, so what do I do if they did? I mean, I've been with him every chance I've gotten...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This story goes from the present to the past in verb tenses, and I'm saying this because I don't want people getting confused. It's basically Emil thinking about something during the present, then explaining what happened beforehand to make him think of what he was thinking about.

I also want to mention that this entire story is in Emil's point of view. I might have a few moments here and there that are from the author's point of view, but overall, the story will be explained from Emil's point of view.

---

--Emil's Point of View--

_It's so strange…_

I couldn't figure it out then, and I can't figure it out now. Yeah, sure, I go off with him whenever I get the chance, but… why does it seem like it means so much to me…? He says he's my enemy, but then he goes and helps me, travels with me, and thanks me… And I just can't help but run off to him when I see him. Tenebrae keeps teasing me over it, saying, "It must be love", and even though I know he's just joking… maybe he's right. But if we really turn out to be enemies, what do I do then? I couldn't just betray everyone to be with him… right? But still, I—

"..il! Emil!"

"Huh?!" I sat up rather quickly from my place on the grass near a large tree, watching as Marta rushed down over to me, then casually leaned over and started talking to me.

"Emil, what are you doing? Why are you by yourself? Is something wrong?" She asked me, tilting her head sideways.

"Uhh…" I blinked uncertainly upon being attacked by her questions all at once.

"Oh! Sorry." She said, smiling, apparently noticing my confusion. "I just wanted to know why you didn't show up to lunch with me and the others."

"Oh, you needn't worry about that." Tenebrae snickered in his own way. "He's just out here thinking about his love life! Everything is fine."

"T-Tenebrae!" I stuttered, but Marta didn't seem to be thinking too deeply about it.

"Oh! You mean, he was dreaming about _us_? Oh, that's so sweet, Emil!" She said cheerfully, while I just nodded stupidly and responded with a simple, "Uhh, yeah. Right."

"I couldn't really say he was dreaming about _you_ two." Tenebrae snickered again, earning a saddened look from Marta, which quickly turned to one of her 'Oh-I-See-How-It-Is!' looks.

"I bet he was thinking about Colette then! Yes, that's it! I'm going to have to have a talk with that girl! I meant it when I said I wasn't going to lose to her!" She insisted, standing upright, then bolted back to the inn of… wherever in the world we were.

I just blinked stupidly while watching her head off, not even sure what to make of the situation.

"Wasn't going to lose to Colette? What's that about? Does Colette like me or something?" I asked, turning to Tenebrae, hoping I'd get an actual answer for once.

"No, no, it's nothing like that. It's just… when Marta and Colette first met in Asgard, Marta ended up with the belief that Colette liked you in _that_ sense, so Marta asked if she liked you. Colette said 'Well, sure, I like him', and Marta believed she meant it in a romantic sense. Of course, Marta is truly the only one in our group who thinks that way…" I sighed, relieved I had gotten an answer worthy of my question, instead of one of Tenebrae's casual jokes.

I looked around for a moment, realizing now how bored I actually was. There really hadn't been anything to do in the last week or so for most of my group. The only person who had to head back and forth between us and somewhere else was Regal, but that's because he's the President of the Lezerano Company. Of course he'd be busy.

I sighed again and leaned against the tree, looking at the cloudless sky. While doing so, those same thoughts came back to me, along with the one question I honestly couldn't find the answer to: _What are these feelings I have for him?_

I was snapped out of those thoughts yet again when I heard the unmistakable voice of a Vanguard member— Decus.

Yet again, I sat up, looking in the direction of his voice. From the sound of it, he was alone, just being himself and mumbling then shouting things to himself. I was _sure_ it was him as he walked closer. Oh, that dreaded _smell_…

"…prove myself by protecting her, and— Oh! You! My fan! So nice to see you!" Decus shouted cheerfully, and rushed over to me, leaving me gaping at him, confused.

"Ahh, my wonderful fan! To be honest, I actually need to ask you something!" Decus said, pulling me up from my spot with a very determined look.

"Uhh… well, to start things off, my name is _Emil_, and no, I'm… not… your fan…" I blinked.

"…Oh. Well, then… Emil. I've been hearing some terribly odd rumor going around that you, my friend, are infatuated with a member of the Vanguard like, just as my dear Lady Alice says, Marta is with you. Wouuuuld this be true?"

"Uhm… Sure…?" I said, nodding my head almost involuntarily, almost like I _wanted_ to say Yes, but not able to say that directly.

"O-Oh dear! With Marta being a _former_ Vanguard member, this means it is _not_ in fact her! Does this mean… I have competition over Lady Alice's heart?!" Decus asked, looking utterly shocked.

"_Huh_?!" I, too, was actually shocked to hear that. "_No_! I don't like _Alice_! You can… um… have her for yourself, Decus…" I said uncertainly, blinking at him with a confused yet still shocked look to match his own.

"O-Oh, I see… Well, I mean, it's obviously not… Marta's father, so… so _wait_!" He paused, sounding like he'd figured something out.

"Uh, w-what?"

"…It must be _me_!" He said, jabbing his thumb towards himself.

"_Huh_?!" This time, I was even _more_ shocked than before. "_You_?!"

"Yes, _me_! Truly, I don't believe you could like _Hawk_, and after him, have you really ever spoken to a Vanguard member before? So you really _are_ my fan! You could've just _said_ so! You didn't need to try to hide it!"

"Uhm, Decus…? I think you should just… be on your way now…" I said, staring and blinking at him in disbelief.

"…_Oh, yes!_ I was on an errand and got sidetracked when I saw you because of that question! Well, in the end, it's quite good to know you're still my fan! Well then, my friend, I shall see you again someday!" He said, yet again cheerful sounding and ran off, waving.

It was after he'd left that I realized my heart had been pounding ever since he'd told me he'd been hearing some rumor of me being infatuated with a Vanguard member. Was I actually _afraid_ of him figuring it out? Maybe something else? I couldn't really tell… But there a lot of things I couldn't tell at this point, so I figured there was no sense in worrying about it. Well, at least it cured my boredom for a bit… Although, it's _really_ going to suck on my behalf if he spreads that rumor as far as the other Vanguard members…

"Oh, Emil. Is that Richter over there?" Tenebrae said, moving in the direction he'd nodded his head to, then sat down.

"Huh, what?" I asked, looking in the direction he was looking towards, only to see that he was right.

'_Well, this is certainly an… eventful afternoon…'_ I blinked, realizing he must've wanted to see me, hence him walking in my direction.

Once he walked up to me, I started getting… those feelings again, and felt my heart start racing again.

_This can't be… fear…_ I decided, finally taking one option of my list. It _was_ true that I didn't feel scared of Richter…

"Emil." Richter said, looking straight at me, stopping in front of me.

I tilted my head and asked, "Uhh… Yeah, Richter?"

"Did Decus pass by here?"

"Yeah, he did. …But, uh… why?" I asked, my head still tilted.

Richter sighed, then said, "That idiot went and lost Solum's Core. It was decided that I would be the one to retrieve it, and I decided it'd be easier if I came to you for help."

"Huh? Easier if _I_ went with you? Don't I just always… get in your way?" I was a little shocked to hear him say that, but it certainly made me stand upright in a heartbeat. And not just any heartbeat's length of time, but my own heartbeat's length of time; which would be… rather fast.

"You have Tenebrae with you. He should be able to sense Solum's Core, which makes my job practically ten times easier. I wouldn't mind the addition in fighting power, either. Assuming, of course, you don't _plan_ to get in my way. You don't, by any chance, do you?" I quickly shook my head at this, feeling unusually happy that I was practically being _invited_ to go somewhere with Richter, and without him even telling me _not_ to get in his way. Instead, this time… he _asked_ that I wouldn't.

But I couldn't stop getting the feeling that there _had_ to be something _else_ behind this sudden… _surge_ of happiness…

"Well then. Shouldn't you go tell the others you have something you have to do? I'm sure you can find tons of excuses. Surely, they wouldn't allow you to go out if you told them you were heading somewhere with a Vanguard member. Especially under the circumstance that you don't plan on taking the Core from me after we find it."

"Uh… I guess I should just tell them I'm going out for a lone walk… Although Marta might think something's wrong and ask to come with me…"

"Then tell her you don't want anyone to come along." Richter shrugged.

"Uh… I'll try it." I shrugged back, and he nodded. I nodded back, and headed off to the inn.

Once I walked in, I had every pair of eyes in the room on me, and I asked, "Uhhh… Did I… do something wrong?"

"No. We're just wondering where you've _been_ all day!" Genis huffed, crossing his arms, sitting on the couch beside Lloyd, who was sitting… unusually… close to Zelos.

"Oh… Sorry… I was just outside relaxing. And actually, I just came in here to tell you guys I'm going out for a walk."

"You just got _back_, and you're _leaving_ again?!" Genis said, gaping at me.

"I-I only came in to tell you guys I was taking a walk! I just wanted to let you guys _know_!"

"Well, alright…" He sighed.

"You're going alone? Isn't that dangerous? Maybe I should come along…" Colette suggested with a worried expression on her face.

"Nooo, no, no! _I'll_ go with you, Emil!" Marta said, jumping up in front of me.

"Actually, I was… gonna go by myself." I said, backing up from Marta due to having too little space between us.

"Awww… Emil, is something wrong?" She asked, clearly wanting answers.

"No… Marta, you're always over worrying about me. It's not like I'm going all the way across the continent by myself or something." I sighed. Well, at least _that_ much was true.

"Awww…" Marta said sadly. "Well, okay then… But since you're not going with any of us, don't go too far, okay?"

"O-Okay." I nodded, then headed back out and ran straight to Richter.

"It's okay. We're set." I nodded to him, getting a nod back in response, followed by a simple, "Good."

As we started walking away, I had really started to feel guilty for lying to everyone, but knew what I said wasn't _really_ a _big_ lie. I mean, I _was_ walking, but I just wasn't… walking by myself. But then, there had been other times where it was only me and Marta, and I headed off with Richter without even saying a single word to her ahead of time. I always told her something _after_… But this time, since I had actually said something _beforehand_, it made me feel a little less guilty about it.

And I had apparently gotten used to the speed my heart was beating at, because I hadn't realized then that my heart was still beating faster than usual the entire time since Richter arrived.


	2. Chapter 2

_"Well, actually, I like him a lot."…I'm almost positive those words had a deeper meaning, so what do I do if they did? I mean, I've been with him every chance I've gotten… …even this time. And even knowing I'm doing something to help the people I'm supposed to call "Enemy", I just feel happy being able to be of any use to him. Are these feelings just happiness, or something else that merely __**involves**__ happiness…?_

_-  
_

Tenebrae had settled on having us search in the Ossa Trail's maintenance passage, as that's where he believed he was able to sense Solum's Core the strongest. He'd said he sensed it to be as far into the passage as possible, and of course, the area had been worked on some recently. The Trail's passage had several paths that lead to even more paths, not only making us have to search through every path until we found the Core, but the fact that there were so many different paths made it hard to tell which ones we'd been through already and which we hadn't.

I realized shortly after we'd arrived at the Ossa Trail that when Decus said he had an errand to do, he must have meant that it was to find the Core he'd lost. It didn't take all that long before I was _sure_ that was the case, because I could _smell_ him from paths before paths away.

"I believe Solum's Core should be down the path and to the right, and then down that path…" Tenebrae suddenly said, breaking the silence.

"To the right's forward path? Isn't that supposedly where an Underworld demon was said to reside?" Richter asked, although sounding pretty sure of what he was talking about. "In that case, Decus was probably trying to fight it while in possession of Solum's Core, and dropped it there. More than likely, he wouldn't have realized he'd dropped it until he was back at the Vanguard's base."

"Uh… w-we're not gonna have to fight this demon guy, right? To get the Core back?" I asked nervously.

Richter sighed. "Only if it's guarding it now, which it wouldn't have a reason to. Unless, of course, it just wanted an excuse to fight us."

"But if it's a demon from the Underworld, of course it would want to fight us! I mean, not that I _want_ to fight it… I'd prefer to _avoid_ it, if that's even possible…"

"If we have to fight it to get the Core back, then we're fighting it. Unless you'd prefer to stay away while _I_ handled it?" Richter asked, raising an eyebrow with a slight smirk on his face.

"I… _No_! That's not it! I just wasn't really expecting to have to fight!" I said hurriedly, which both Richter and Tenebrae clearly noticed.

"He just wanted more time alone with you than fighting." Tenebrae snickered.

"_Tenebrae_! That's not what I _said_!" I whined. Yet, I felt like that was almost _true_…

"I didn't say you _said_ it. But knowing you, Emil, that was the _meaning_ behind those words." He paused for a brief moment and looked at me, then started laughing.

"W-What?!" I snapped.

"Oh, Emil… Just the look on your face… You look so upset about it… It's quite humorous, really." He said, holding back any further laughter.

"No it's not…" I huffed, but Richter seemed rather amused by this. I looked over at him and blinked for a moment, then asked, "A-Are you laughing at me?!"

"Not laughing. But it _is_ rather amusing…" Richter sighed, shaking his head. "But we should find Solum's Core before you make anymore jokes, Tenebrae."

"Oh yes, most certainly." He nodded. "Although I'm not quite sure that would be a joke at this point…" I heard him mumble, then chuckle, which I responded to with a pouting face.

-

Once we'd gotten to where Solum's Core was, I groaned at the situation. Naturally, my least favorite was the one that had to happen—a giant monster guarding the Core.

"Huge black skeleton, huh?" Richter said, looking amused. "Guess the situation's exactly like I expected it to be."

"What is that thing?" I asked uncertainly.

"A demon from the Underworld— the Sword Dancer. I'd heard it was defeated, but… perhaps it came back."

"That's not fair…" I huffed.

"Fair or not, that's the way things are. And if I were you, I'd move."

"Huh?" I blinked, then turned to realize said Sword Dancer was already attacking us. I let out a small squeal when I moved out of the way, but apparently, I hadn't moved _far enough_.

I found myself holding off the monster's sword from slicing through me with my own, but its physical power was clearly more than I could handle. I quickly held back my own arm from holding the Sword Dancer's sword in its place, but just as quickly shoved it backwards.

"You have a wonderful helping hand!" I spat at Richter as the Sword Dancer stumbled backwards.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I figured you wouldn't need any help." He shrugged, but clearly speaking in a sarcastic voice.

"It only must have looked obvious." I grimaced, slashing several times at the attacking Sword Dancer. Thankfully, I'd gotten no response from Richter, as he just backed me up from then on. I probably would've thrown come crazy, violent fit over having been protected by him at _least_ five times during the coarse of the battle, but I pretty much got my feelings about that out on the Sword Dancer. It didn't make it any better that Richter was rather amused by these actions the entire time…

"You know, you didn't have to protect me that much!" I snapped, as the Sword Dancer faded away, talking some crazy nonsense of "Strong ones" and meeting again.

Richter just shook his head. "Actually, I did. I wouldn't put myself in harm's way for you or anybody if it was unnecessary." He sighed, brushing hair out of his face.

I blinked for a moment, then quietly said, more to myself than to him, "So you wouldn't treat me any differently than any other person…"

"Hm?" Richter turned his head to me, but I just shook my head.

"Um… Nothing."

"Well, I doubt you'd be mumbling about 'Nothing' to yourself." He said, his head still turned to me.

"Well… you're not looking any other way right now, so… does that mean you're… expecting a response?" I asked uncertainly.

"I'd prefer one, since as I said, you wouldn't be mumbling about _nothing_ to yourself. Unless, of course, it's got to do with us being enemies and you're just thinking out loud. Something like that certainly isn't something you'd be willing to tell me."

"N-No!" I said quickly. "I don't think of you as an _enemy_… I prefer to think of you as a friend…" At this, Richter raised an eyebrow at me.

"A friend? Even though I've been trying to kill Marta?"

"Well, I mean… you were my first friend, and you helped me try to become emotionally stronger! I've looked up to you ever since then!"

"So if I _do_ kill Marta, would you be just as willing to befriend me?"

"Um… Well…"

"You can decide about that on your own, can't you?" He asked, looking away now and walking over to the Core.

"Y-Yes… but… after everything you've done for me, I can't just… _hate_ you all of sudden, can I?"

"That's up to you to decide." Richter sighed, picking up Solum's Core from it's resting place on the ground.

"But, Richter… do you _really_ treat other people no differently than… you treat me…?" I asked, looking around the cave, trying to look anywhere besides Richter.

"Usually. I've fought alongside other people, but any of my actions vary depending on the person I'm with. Everyone acts and fights differently, which requires different courses of action on my part." He said, turning back to me.

"Oh… So then, I'm… just another person…? I'm not anything… special, or different to you?" I asked, looking to the ground, asking that question clearly without even thinking of what I'd just actually asked.

"Special or different? Am I supposed to?" He asked, yet again raising an eyebrow at me.

I hesitated before answering him again, realizing what I said after he'd repeated my words.

"Um… Well… like, you know, am I… just an acquaintance, or am I like… a friend? Or _close_ friend or something?" I asked quickly, aside from the brief pausing between words as I tried to back up the meaning behind the words that even I wasn't sure of. And for some reason, my heart started pounding again…

"I'd have to settle for acquaintance for now, like with everyone else. It's true that I've traveled with you more often than anyone else, but I don't do so out of any sort of affection. We usually just meet through random occurrences. I don't usually seek you out, like I did this time." He answered, walking back over to me.

"O-Oh… Okay… I guess that kind of makes sense…" I nodded stupidly.

"_Kind_ of?" He almost laughed. "It _does_ make sense."

"Uh… Um… Yeah, of course." I nodded more normally this time, although simply receiving a sigh from Richter, followed by a just as simple, "Let's go now."

I nodded again, and we turned to leave, but before getting out, Decus had rushed in and breathlessly exclaimed, "Oh, thank goodness! You… found it for me! And you even brought… my biggest fan along…! Well then, I'll… meet you outside of this cave!" He nodded quickly and rushed back in the direction he'd arrived in.

Richter sighed again and began walking, but I hadn't even noticed at the time, being too busy wondering what exactly he'd meant by "For now" and "Usually". Was he really going to befriend me if we traveled together more or something? And by "Usually", did he mean he only looked for me under certain occasions? If so, what were those occasions?

Richter snapped me back out of my thoughts when he called over to me, saying, "Emil, let's go! What are you just _standing_ there for?!"

"I-I'm sorry! We can leave now!" I again nodded quickly, running to him to catch up, then walking at a normal pace beside him.

I was surprised when he didn't say anything about me walking right next to him, which brought up yet another question in my mind: Did he really not mind me walking beside him? I mean, didn't walking side-by-side practically mean we were equals, or friends…?

-

**A/N: **Please excuse Emil's bi-polar-ish moment there. Please mind that later in the story, as well as any other bi-polar-ish moments he may have later on. :3


	3. Author's Note

I'm sorry this is only a note, but I'm grounded. I haven't forgotten for even a day about you all, but as I was in the middle of updating the next chapter, I got grounded. I'll try to pull my grades up for you guys soon. Meanwhile, I'll write out future chapters. I'll update ASAP for my beloved readers. :3

Very sorry. :c


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